Econoday Report: Redbook 1, 2005

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2005 U.S. Economic Events & Analysis

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Redbook

Definition
A weekly measure of sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores. It is a less consistent indicator of retail sales than the weekly ICSC index. It is also calculated differently than other indicators. For instance, figures for the first week of the month are compared with the average for the entire previous month. When two weeks are available, then these are compared with the average for the previous month, and so on. It might be more useful to compare year-over-year figures since these are indeed compared to the comparable week a year ago. This index is correlated with the general merchandise portion of retail sales covering only about 10 percent of total retail sales. Why Investors Care

Highlights
Store sales were hurt by severe weather across much of the country in the Jan. 29 week, the conclusion of both this morning's Redbook and ICSC-UBS reports.

But Redbook's results were stronger than those of ICSC-UBS. Year-on-year sales in the week were up 2.9 percent, one tenth higher than 2.8 percent reported in the Jan. 15 week.

Still, sales at these levels are barely above the rate of inflation, if at all. And though December's retail sales were strong, January's appear to have softened -- a possible plus for bonds and a negative for the dollar and stocks.

Chain-stores will report their January results on Thursday, helping to settle expectations for the later release of retail sales data by the Census Bureau.

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